snorbens_caleyman

Here's one of my Dad's photos from 1980. There's a bit of a giveaway in it! I'm guessing that you might have been standing on that bridge, if it's still there?

Fair enough. But I wasn't joking when I said it was worth a phone call. Who knows? He might feel he's getting towards the end of his career - might fancy something a bit different near the end. Away from the spotlight of English football. Even if it was just until the end of the season. Might just catch him at an opportune moment. Make that phone call!

I personally can't stand him. But I can't deny his experience and reputation. His name might put the club back on the map and attract players who wouldn't otherwise be interested, in much the same way as Terry Butcher did. (Though we might not be able to afford them just now.) Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Nothing to lose either. Make that call to him!

.... and thus can have no idea how we've been playing and what has been going wrong. Sure, there are probably videos to study, but that is no substitute for being there, watching and feeling events unfold in real time.

Was he at Ross County as well, then?

Well, we could do with a new manager, centre back, big striker....

Keep plugging away at trying to establish a communication channel. That has to be the first and only priority. Eventually, though, it might have to be a formal complaint - to the SFA? to UEFA? - that the SLO is not doing his job. Though that's probably irrelevant since we're unlikely to qualify for a UEFA competition in the near future ...

No, honest I'm not! I don't have any notebooks filled with loco numbers, or photos of old rolling stock... But the stories of the railways in the Highlands are fascinating. There are the engineering challenges which had to be overcome to build them. Just as interesting are the commercial shenanigans between the companies competing to build the railways and link places, and the financing by large investments from businessmen and land owners. Not to mention the operational problems enountered, especially in bad weather. On a personal note, I discovered just a few years ago that one of my great-grandfathers used to work for Highland Railways, as a fitter's labourer in the engine shed which was just about where Morrison's is now on Millburn Road. He was killed by a loco reversing into the station. It looks as though they had to clock in and out in an office in the station, and the quickest way was to walk along the tracks. The story is here - John Smith - great-grandfather.pdf The Fatal Accident Inquiry would probably come to very different conclusions today! I had never heard of this, and neither had my father's brother, who was the only surviving person in my family who might have known. But at least it explains why my father and I were both named "John ... Smith"

BTW, I am not a railway enthusiast. But during the summer I was at the Bo'ness and Kinneil railway. The station at Bo'ness has a second-hand bookshop, where I picked up two different books about the development of the Highland Railway for the vast sum of three quid. So, given the hints you had dropped, it was a case of checking where the "branch line" going past a castle south of Golspie was - the Dornoch Light Railway. After that it was straightforward.

The ruined castle is Skelbo. Your second shot is from the layby at the north end of the Mound, at the top of Loch Fleet. Your house is a nice holiday cottage just north across the river from the layby, 7 nights from £599. Might be a bit noisy since it's literally next to the A9. But I don't think it was the station - that appears to be the building that is a couple of hundred yards past the cottage, along the unsurfaced track. Am Baile has a postcard - https://www.ambaile.org.uk/asset/27972/ - which shows the railway and the road at that point, as well as a "station building", which looks like a cottage for the attendant for the level crossing there. I think that is the house in your photo. Unless I'm going crazy - always a possibility - the road nowadays follows the line of of the railway, pointed directly at the cottage, and the old road embankment has gone.

Won't it be our "director of football" making the signings?

And the B-side:

Go on then - tell us what his "game plan and tactics" are. And also tell us how you are the only other person who knows that they are

BBC stats now say that shots are 15-8 in our favour! But that we've had only 4 on target....

50' Dismissal Second yellow card to Adam Frizzell (Airdrieonians) for a bad foul. 3-0 any minute now then...

The BBC stats reckon that possession is about 50-50, and that we have had 9 shots to their 4

What? Did Dodds score it?

Crossed it that very night - we were heading south to visit relatives in Newtongrange (aka Nitten-by-the-Bing). The fog was so thick that my Mum had the passenger window down and was telling my Dad how close to the edge of the road we were.

Sure - but look along to the right at the pre-pandemic numbers. And only 70 in May 2021 suggests that quite a number of people are employed for purposes associated with match-day crowds.

There's a list of shareholders here - https://pomanda.com/company/SC149117/inverness-thistle-and-caledonian-f.c.-limited - but how complete, accurate and up-to-date it is, I have no idea. The figures add up to a little over 80%.

He must have been gutted when they were playing away

"We found it down the back of the sofa!"

Should have gone to Specsavers, Robert

A director of football who doesn't attend first team matches? They're taking the mickey...

Should be some improvement in the second half, then.